Don’t pretend you’ve never Googled yourself.
A few years ago, I searched “Lauren Walkup Tallahassee” on Google Images, and boy, was I disappointed with what I found. Feel free to scroll to the end of this blog to see what I mean.

If you didn’t notice from the picture, I used to play volleyball - I mean, a lot of volleyball. For about six years I did school ball, club ball, sand volleyball, private lessons, and practiced in my backyard. I can confidently say, after all that time and practice, I was still a pretty mediocre player. Let’s be honest, I’m a whopping 5’7 and laziness was my favorite sin, so playing Division 1 ball was never in the cards for me.

When I graduated high school, I stopped playing for a while. I was bitter because I wasn’t as good as some of my friends who went on to play college ball, and I hated that I had wasted so much time on hitting a piece of leather around a net.

It wasn’t until I started working in the Lakes youth group that I started to see what God was doing. As an intern, I cannot tell you how many girls (SO MANY) I’ve met and connected with over Chiles volleyball, Tallahassee club ball, sand volleyball, working out, or sports in general.
 
Here’s what God has taught me: You don’t need to be the best to have purpose.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story about a master and his servants to explain what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. In verse 15, He says this: “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” 

God gives us each gifts according to our abilities. When we focus on the servant who received five talents from the master, we are missing out on our own talent from the master. When I focused on why I wasn’t a star player, I selfishly missed out on the gift of being an average player.

So, I’ve got to ask: What gifts and talents are you burying because you think they’re mediocre? I believe that God has a plan for even the things at which we’re “just okay”. (Note: this doesn’t mean you should stay where you’re at and not improve - it’s an invitation to stop comparing.)

God determined the rise and fall of every nation - their time periods and the places they would be (Acts 17: 26-27). If God is sovereign over the nations, how much more is he sovereign over your life? You are in this time and place for a purpose: that you might know God and make Him known. 

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “My ______ won’t make a difference,” it might be a sign that you’ve been burying a precious talent. Don’t waste your holy mediocrity.

Grab your shovel. It’s time to dig up all of our average skills, finances, gifts, talents, and traits that we tend to bury [and use them] - for the glory of God and the sake of the world.